The 4th Annual Zero Fatalities for Children Traveling to School media week was held in Clark County August 7th through 11th. The event highlighted the ways children travel to school and brought together all of the safety partners to address each travel mode as a group. This made it easy for everyone to participate and to get media coverage. This year, Clark County had media coverage throughout the week, generating dozens of stories (in both English and Spanish) on television, on the radio, and in print.
On Monday, bus safety was highlighted on both school and Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) Transit buses. The Clark County School District (CCSD) Transportation Department partnered with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCSN) for the buses. Inside the transit bus, bus safety and tips were discussed. In addition, the Annual Stop Arm Survey results were covered by having CCSD Police demonstrate a staged stop violation for the media.
Tuesday was bike and pedestrian safety day. The Boulevard Mall sponsored space for a bike rodeo and set up a Kindergarten Crosswalk…all indoors! The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) and Bicycle Nevada provided helmets to each child who attended and SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium gave each child a free entry ticket for a future trip to the aquarium.
Wednesday highlighted pedestrian safety at a mid-block crosswalk that is highly traveled with no crossing guard, located at Dumont and Maryland Parkway. Officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP), and Clark County Sheriff’s Department educated drivers that did not yield to pedestrians waiting to use the crosswalk as well as pedestrians.
Thursday at Sunrise Hospital, Safe Kids and Clark County partnered to highlight Booster Seat Safety and the fact that the law in Nevada does not protect children for as long as it should. There are a lot of seven-, eight-, nine-, and even 10-year-olds who still need booster seats. Many six-year-olds barely reached the 40-lb. weight minimum to be in a booster seat. The ultimate goal of the event was to highlight that a lot of elementary students should be traveling in booster seats. A booster seat giveaway was part of the day’s festivities.
Friday wrapped up the week highlighting Teen Drivers with an introduction to the “Cars and Cops” program by Zero Teen Fatalities. This program teaches teen drivers the importance of vehicle maintenance for safety and demonstrated tips using the Cars and Cops vehicles on how to achieve safe maintenance of your vehicle.
Everyone had a very productive, successful, educational week! All agencies involved are looking forward to building on the messages shared this week throughout 2017.
Thanks to all participating agencies including Bicycle Nevada, Center for Traffic Safety Research, CCSD Police and Transportation, Community Ambulance, LVMPD Traffic, RTCSN, NDOT, NV Department of Education, Safe Routes to School, NHP, Safe Kids, Clark County, the Vulnerable Road Users Project, and Zero Teen Fatalities.
